1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the technology involving separation of material components and, more particularly, to the extraction and recovery of precious metals, or fines, from ores and other source materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, the extraction and recovery of the precious metals constituents from the raw ore matrix have typically been performed by heating or chemically treating the unprocessed ore and separating the precious metal constituents.
Recently, the increasing requirement for precious metals has resulted in a depletion of the high grade ores. As lower grade ores are used as a source of precious metals, the extraction or separation process has become increasingly difficult and expensive. In a majority of situations, tons of ore must be processed to extract and recover ounces of precious metals. Thus, the processing of ores of increasingly inferior quality has placed stringent demands on the processing techniques. These stringent demands have been imposed at a time of steadily mounting energy costs and in the face of increasing regulation with respect to the impact of the processing on the environment.
A need has therefore been felt for apparatus and for methods for processing low grade ores and other source materials (i.e., ores an materials with low concentrations of the recovery component) to extract precious metals therefrom in a manner which is economically competitive and environmentally feasible.